Derbyshire Healthcare remains top Trust for patient confidentiality

Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust remains the best mental health and community Trust in the country for ensuring that confidential information, such as patient records, is stored safely.

This is the second consecutive year that the Trust has topped the national charts for its commitment to confidentiality, by achieving 96% compliance and an initial grading of satisfactory (the highest grading available).

Each year the Trust has to submit its annual Information Governance Toolkit Assessment to NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre, an organisation which maintains and develops the national IT infrastructure for the NHS. The Information Governance Toolkit is an online system which allows NHS organisations to ensure patients’ confidential information is stored safely, and to assess themselves against Department of Health information governance policies and standards.

The Toolkit submission is a self-assessment tool covering 45 achievements and Trusts have to submit over 650 pieces of evidence to demonstrate compliance with these standards; this covers everything from the physical security of computers and policies and procedures dedicated to record keeping.

Dr John Sykes, Caldicott Guardian for Derbyshire Healthcare, said: “We believe in putting our patients at the centre of everything we do, and that is why it is so important to us that we recognise and maintain patient confidentiality at its highest level. This fantastic achievement once again gives me a lot of confidence that information is held securely throughout our organisation. This level of success can only be achieved through the hard work and commitment of all our staff, so my thanks go to them.”